Abstract. One of the main sources of gravitational waves for the LISA space-borne interferometer is galactic binary systems. The waveforms for these sources are represented by eight parameters of which four are intrinsic and four are extrinsic to the system. Geometrically, these signals exist in an 8D parameter space. By calculating the metric tensor on this space, we calculate the number of templates needed to search for such sources. We show in this study that below a particular monochromatic frequency of f₀ ~ 1.6 × 10⁻³ Hz we can ignore one of the intrinsic parameters and search over a 7D space. Beyond this frequency, we have a change in dimensionality of the parameter space from 7 to 8 dimensions. This sudden change in dimensionality results in a change in the scaling of template number as a function of the monochromatic frequency from ~f^1.25₀ to ~f^5.88₀.

PACS numbers: 04.30.−w, 04.30.Db

Print publication: Issue 18 (21 September 2005)
Received 1 April 2005, in final form 26 May 2005
Published 23 August 2005